2014 Edinburgh Fringe

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After a short, but critically acclaimed, debut run at last year's Edinburgh Festival Kiss & Tell Cabaret returns with a brand new show Cocktails With The Diva to the Assembly.

On entering the boudoir of Diva Melinda Hughes and victimized pianist Jeremy Limb, you will hear her views on world affairs; plastic surgery, bad cabaret, UKIP and she will show you how to blend the perfect cocktail. This musical romp through social satire and politics is composed of original risqué songs and brilliantly crafted pastiches on opera and jazz with its roots firmly planted in Weimar Cabaret.

In 2005 Melinda suffered a debilitating accident badly prolapsing a disc in her neck leaving her in excruciating pain and unable to work for a year. It was then she created Kiss & Tell Cabaret with her pianist and composer Jeremy Limb (already an established comedian and writer has performed with The Trap).

Melinda was born and brought up in London, the daughter of the late writer and film director Ken Hughes (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang & Cromwell). She deferred her entrance to read Italian and History of Art at Sussex University to study singing at The Maastricht Conservatory of Music, graduating with Honours. She then completed her postgraduate studies in Opera performance at the Royal College of Music.

She returned to Maastricht and toured Europe for three years as the soloist with The André Rieu Strauss Orchestra singing German Operetta, often appearing on Television and Radio. Her career has taken her to more than thirty countries. Operatic roles include Tosca, The Countess, Fiordilgi, Mimi, Violetta, Gilda, Frasquita, Konstanze, Donna Anna, Pamina Euridice, Nedda and Madame Butterfly. On the concert platform, Melinda has sung at The Auditorio Nacional Madrid, The Concertgebouw Amsterdam, St John's Smith Square, St Martin in the Fields, The Queen Elizabeth Hall, The Royal Albert Hall and Cadogan Hall.

After much physio and rehab Melinda slowly returned to her first love opera, yet her dedication to her cabaret provides her with an exciting and varied musical career and the ability to cross over well with ease of style and vocal sensitivity. This July Melinda will sing the title role of Aida in Verdi's Adia with Dorset Opera.

Kiss & Tell Cabaret have performed at many private events as well as at The Hay Festival and the Al Bustan Festival in Beirut in 2006 (where they dodged bullets being fired by Hezbollah in Parliament Square), They also supported the American Comedian Maz Jobrani at the Cadogan Hall and most recently performed at The Holders Festival in Barbados together with Kit Hesketh Harvey.